Today’s Destiny 2 The Final Shape showcase has revealed new information of what’s the final chapter in the first saga of Destiny 2. Game director Joe Blackburn highlighted some of what players will see in the upcoming expansion.
Along with numerous cinematic trailers and pre-alpha footage, the dev team detailed a swath of new details players can expect from The Final Shape. First, there will be no open betas in the coming weeks for The Final Shape release. Blackburn said that everyone will go into the campaign on launch day experiencing the same uncharted territory. As well, The Final Shape will ramp up the difficulty to the highest level yet. Blackburn reiterated that the story, and expansion is a culmination of nearly a decade long journey which will see Guardians head directly into The Traveler. The threat this time is with The Witness who previously opened a portal into The Traveler seen in the recent Lightfall expansion.
The Final Shape will see the return of iconic locations, most notably The Tower from the original Destiny. Longtime Destiny fans will remember this location as the central hub of Destiny, however in The Final Shape, sees it as a dilated ruin overtaken by foliage. The main location will be titled The Paleheart, which will vastly change throughout the player’s journey. The dev team noted that The Traveler is recreating what Guardians experienced along their journey— 10 years in the making that is. Players will encounter locations from previous expansions such as from Europa, Nessus, The Moon, and many others, however in remixed fashion. Destiny 2 devs stated that the levels and locations were created both to provide nostalgia while retaining the weirdness that exists within The Traveler.
Guardians will be faced against The Witness who will throw everything at them. Within the expansion exists The Monolith, an enormous tower that will make player’s Guardians feel diminutive against the overarching prescene of extrodianry danger that’s posed. As Guardians reach closer to The Monolith, things only become more challenging and strange.
Of course, since this is an epic battle against a formidable galactic foe, a new enemy has been revealed to challenge Guardians at every step of this final journey. Subjugators, a new enemy type that has an enhanced power set that throws out both stasis and strand abilities, all while controlling the field of familiar enemies like the Taken.
The campaign will be more of a linear story, with a focus on the narrative and the interactions between Commander Zavala, Ikora Rey, and the return of Cayde-6. Cayde’s voice actor will reprise his role, and the devs have noted that Cayde will take on a larger role in this expansion, playing an integral part of leading everyone unto the final journey. Furthermore, the The Final Shape will see many of the titular characters deepening their relationships with one another.
New abilities will come to all players in The Final Shape. For Titans, a Twilight Axe super will unleash numerous axes onto the field. With Void power, enemies are sucked into each axe and taken damage. As well, allies can pick up a thrown axe to deal even more damage and have a shield which can become a damage sponge and output it back to enemies.
Warlocks will get a Solar super enhancement that is similar to the Radiant Super from Destiny. It’ll send out numerous projectiles such as seeking grenades, while also providing increased Solar energy to allies Solar weapons.
Hunter’s new super will use arc to blink to a location and then slash in a wide area to damage enemies. Hunter’s can do this super at least 3 times in rapid succession for maximum power output. There’s also a staff that can propel Hunter’s upward and then combo down moves to damage enemies.
Many of the new weapons coming to The Final Shape will also look familiar to those longtime Destiny fans, with some original and iconic weapons for Destiny making a return. The weapons returning from Destiny will see updated cosmetics along with new and reformatted abilities that’ll bring an edge to combat seen in Destiny 2.
Today also beings the newest Season in Destiny 2, Season of the Witch which goes from August 22nd to November 28th. The new season brings seasonal quests, weapons, armor, and a revised Raid, Crota’s End.
The Final Shape is gearing up to be both the biggest expansion in terms of scale and importance to the story. Once players finish the expansion’s campaign, there will be Raids with the toughest enemies in all of Destiny. The Final Shape will release February 27th, 2024, with pre-orders starting today. Players who pre-order The Final Shape can snag a Tessellation Exotic Fusion Rifle, Exotic Ghost Shell, exclusive emblem, and emote.